Page 95 - Eggs and Ashes pages

94 Eggs and Ashes

No matter how often
we desert you
you never turn your face away from us,
and your abiding concern
is always for our good.
You weep for us,
you laugh with us,
you rejoice in our successes
and are in anguish at our pain.

Yours are the arms
reaching out to cradle us
when we collapse in death.

Loving, mothering God,
strong and tender,
tried and true,
we worship you today.

John Harvey

The pictures of you in our minds

Loving God,
forgive us,
how we have got you wrong!
Lazily we have settled for pictures of you in our minds
which tell a terrible tale.
We have painted you
stern and unbending,
the eternal judge
with no mercy, no compassion.
We have summoned you
onto our side
in battle –
in boardroom or in war –